Well spoken.
One of the things that the scientific community agrees on to this day is that the human brain is the most sophisticated and complex thing in the universe. The UNIVERSE. Pretty bold statement for a species that hasn't been past its own solar system yet, let alone its own galaxy.
-Capt. Havoc
ANTIcarrot <dante_feditech_at_yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > From: Brandon Payne
> Biologically yes, mentally NO. Calling a human an animal is like
> calling a computer a calculator.
Don't be silly. Computers at present *only* calculate and compair numbers.
You might be playing Halo and trying to get that last stubborn grunt on the
upper ledge, but the computer doing addition and subtraction, and following
rather simplistic 'fetch and carry' instructions. The fact that a PC (or
xbox) has a better graphics output, and more raw number crunching power,
does not make it a better or more sophisticated computer.
And some science...
Those who dislike rants (or dull and boring science) might wish to skip it.
> And there is a difference between being sentient and sapient.
Yes. And there is a difference between America and Unamerican. The first one
has real meaning and can be precisely defined in several different ways;
geolgy and nationality being two. The second word though means whatever some
twit wishes it to mean, and has no fixed definition or purpose outside of
politics; where is is a byword for witch hunt.
Sentient and sapient break down similarly. Sentient means 'aware of its
enviroment'. Sepient is the word give to the ever shrinking list of 'things
only humans can do'. Alegedly. (People may remember that 'tool using' and
'tool making' *used* to be on that list before such behaviour was observed
elsewehre in the animal kingdom.) It's used to define the apparent
difference between all humans (who deserve civil rights) and everything else
(which doesn't) - and to exxuse the often rightful unkind way we treat
animals. It's as political as the word 'unamerican' and just as meaningless.
> Sentient means
"My ego," said the human race, "is so bloated I want to pretend I is better
than everything else; to the extent that I will willfully ignore and where
possible distort scientific evidence for the sake of my own self
rightousness."
Do I think pengins should be given the vote? No. That would be silly. But
the issue is much more complex than "humans can and animals can't", and the
sum total of scientific observation indicates that we aren't quite as
special as we used to think we are, and the 'sepient list' is proably going
to shrink some more over the next centuary.
ANTIcarrot.
__________________________________________________________
Inbox full of spam? Get leading spam protection and 1GB storage with All New Yahoo! Mail.
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
---------------------------------
It's here! Your new message!
Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.
Received on Fri Feb 16 2007 - 17:37:23 CST